Tavern of the Blue Hand

Try a New MUD Day!

I propose one or more days per year be regarded and promoted by the MU* community as Try a New MUD Day. On this day (whichever day it ends up being), players stop playing their regular game and try a new MU* which they haven't played in before. When Try a New MUD Day is over with, they can go back to their regular game, switch over to the new one if they'd rather play that, or be open to putting time into both games.

This idea was inspired by a few truths I've realized about MUDding over the years:

1. An active game with a decently-sized community is probably a good game, and someone must have put a lot of time into creating and running the game.

2. People who have stuck with only one game for a long time have likely not seen and experienced the creativity of people who run other games.

3. Some people who have stuck with only one game for a long time might do so only out of a sense of loyalty to the game and its community and are likely more than ready to try something new anyway.

Some people might choose to ignore the day when it comes and continue to play their game, and that's fine. But for those games which experience more new players than usual, it gives them a chance to put on a good face and do their best to attract and retain new visitors, even if they are only irregular players.

This is a great idea. Definitely don't pick a holiday though. No one would want to miss the big holiday events of their favorite mud. I know my favorite, Imperian, does a special event for every holiday. If a day was set--like the first day of every month--for trying a new mud, it might make it easier for little known muds to start a thread discussion to generate some interest and get new players.

If it's every month, it'll probably burn out quickly. Besides, immortals might not want to have events like that so often. Maybe if it's quarterly, like the weekend before each new season, it might work.

I have a feeling that Iron Realms would probably just want its people only trying out Iron Realms games, though.

You might be right, on the other hand they might be interested in non-IRE players coming to give them a try?

In general though I agree that going around to the free muds makes more sense.

While quarterly isn't a bad idea, I also like the thought of an annual Try a New Mud Party Weekend.

What could be cool is to have a website which could coordinate login times to some extent, so you know that at a certain time a bunch of people were going into a mud, and you'd have some newbies to group with.

I often try new muds. Not as much as when I started when I literally tried every mud on the list. But I do. And I find new gems all the time which I add to my roster. I like variety anyways so this is pretty natural to me.

You might be right, on the other hand they might be interested in non-IRE players coming to give them a try?

In general though I agree that going around to the free muds makes more sense.

While quarterly isn't a bad idea, I also like the thought of an annual Try a New Mud Party Weekend.

What could be cool is to have a website which could coordinate login times to some extent, so you know that at a certain time a bunch of people were going into a mud, and you'd have some newbies to group with.

Instead of a website, games could post on forums like TMS giving a new advertising for players update for the weekend, including perks for new visitors. Then in their own games they can encourage their regulars to stay away for the weekend and try some other game.

@plamzi, if you as a mud owner think that mudders regularly play more than one mud, then this could be a good way to attract new players. If you think that they mostly stick with one, then I could see why you wouldn't try this out.

@plamzi, if you as a mud owner think that mudders regularly play more than one mud, then this could be a good way to attract new players. If you think that they mostly stick with one, then I could see why you wouldn't try this out.

I'm confused. I, as a MUD owner, think that about half of my playerbase regularly plays other games. I still don't see how that would motivate me to tell my players to go play other games.

Now, I have other roles in which I would like to see people check out multiple games, especially people who are new to MUDs in general. But as a MUD admin, I can't think of a single reason to actively drive people away from my game on the off chance that some other MUD admin may do the same and those players may end up in my game. It's just a stretch to me.

* your players who go play another mud are likely to come back and keep playing your mud, but new players from other muds who have never played your mud are more likely to add your mud to their list if they come and try yours out. Sure, the actual time played may zero out between players who leave and players who come, but the health of your playerbase will likely end up being more resilient with more total players.

* Furthermore if other muds fold, where will their players go? Probably to muds they've played before or are multiplaying now. Isn't it to your advantage to be one of those go-to muds?

* on the more hypothetical side, if you have a regular group of players from Other Mud X coming to play your mud, it might promote some healthy intermud connections that lead to cross-promotional efforts, advertising, client development, etcetera -- just the sort of thing to build community, as you're doing with MudPortal. Isn't that something you want to encourage?

Think it is overall a good idea. Though, I would think keeping it to posts on the forum would be beneficial to MUD owners. I can see the benefit Ide is talking about and in a perfect world I'd agree. In the real world people are out for their own interests and will attempt to twist things to their favor.

What might be an interesting twist to the New MUD day idea might be for one MUD to be chosen at a time in which everyone following this thread tries out simultaneously. It might lead to a large influx of new players at once to the MUD and maybe everybody can post comments about how each person liked that MUD. A lot of people have a favorite MUD that they are loyal to, but this might help them find secondary MUDS that they will play on occasion. Plus, it might be fun for those following the thread to play the same MUD at the same time and share our different RP styles.

The way I see it, if your game is really good, your regular players will come back. If your game is really good, some new people may stick around.

Hmm, the flaw in this logic is pretty obvious. There are many reasons to quit a game that have nothing to do with its quality. I've quit every game I ever played, including some incredible ones. Haven't you?

The way I see it, you're going to have to work a lot harder to persuade game admins to hop on such an initiative. Why not do something that is entirely player-driven, as nyanko suggests?

The goal of this idea was to shake up MUDs and MUD communities by getting people out of ruts to try new games, especially the people who have been in one game for years and years and never tried anything new, while at the same time to give MUD operators new motivation to attract and retain players.

If it's just a few people on a forum randomly trying out a new game together, it just gives a random MUD an unusual spike in players now and then.